Combination ice chest and water cooler



June 7, 1966 D. J. THOMAS 3,254,504

COMBINATION ICE CHEST AND WATER COOLER Filed Jan. 1'7, 1964 las il V /qg 2A qq a X f-bll Fig. z.

l l l l l Q Lf f f IE 5 l; d L U L, D L i, m 1 I I I J n l n; 92 z INVENTORA N Donald J. Thomas United States Patent O 3 254 504 COMBINATION ICE CIEST AND WATER CQOLER Donald J. Thomas, Indianapolis, Ind., assignor to General Equipment Manufacturing and Sales, Incorporated, Indianapolis, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Filed Jan. 17, 1964, Ser. No. 338,385

4 Claims. (Cl. 62-332) This invention relates generally to ice chests and more particularly to anice chest of novel construction and serving not only as a place for storage of ice but also as a water cooler.

In restaurants, the use of bins or compartments for flaked or crushed ice is well known, the ice being used in the preparation of cold drinks of all types. Many cold` drinks require not only crushed, aked, pelletized or cubed ice, but also clear or carbonated water which has been chilled. During rush hours at restaurants, substantial quantities of chilled Water are required in the making of cold drinks. Heretofore, this has required a chilled water reservoir of very large capacity or a refrigerating system of large capacity in order to supply the amount of chilled water desired, when needed.

Ice stored for use in cold drinks has been used heretofore inV water chilling devices. However, such use of stored ice has not been very effective to chill water for several reasons, one of which is the tendency of the ice chips or pellets tofuse together and form a sort of bridge of melting ice. This causes poor heat transfer between the ice and the water to be chilled. The result isthat the utility of melting ice for this purpose is quite limited and the refrigerating capacity of the refrigerating equipment for the water Chillers has been quite large, and necessarily so in order to provide the quantity of chilled water necessary at rush hours in restaurants.

lt is, therefore, a general object of the present invention to provide an improved ice chest.

A further object is to provide improved means for chilling water.

A further object is to provide water chilling means incorporating the heat absorption capacity of aked or crushed ice to the best advantage.

A further object is to provide a water chilling device having a minimum requirement insofar as refrigeration equipment is concerned, and yet having substantial capacity for providing ample quantities of chilled water during rush hours.

A further object is to provide a water cooler in which the water is not pressurized.

A still further object is to provide a water cooler having the ability to serve as a cooler for soft drink syru-ps and the like.

A still further object is to provide an ice chest and cooler having the ability to achieve the foregoing objects and yet characterized by comparatively simple, ecient, and sanitary construction.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims.

FIG. 1 represents a typical embodiment of the present invention, a portion being shown in section taken on a vertical plane, and a portion showing schematically the connection of the sectioned portion with other components of a drink dispensing system.

FIG. 2 is a section taken along line 2-2 in FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the ice chest 11 is a generallycubical open topped container having a flange 12extending around the upper mar-gin thereof. The container need not be perfectly cubical inasmuch as it can be longer than it is wide and deeper than it is wide, for example, depending on the space available where it is to be employed. This container is sealed so that it is y in parallel spaced relationship thereto,

capable 'of containing water or any other iluid up to a level of an overflow outlet 13 in the rear wall thereof near the top of the container.

A second upwardly opening container 14 has a ange 16 around the perimeter of its upper margin and is suspended by the flange 16 resting on flange 12 of the outer container. The inner container has a generally rectangular vertical front wall 17, generally triangular vertical side walls 18 and 19 in horizontally spaced relationship, and a generally rectangular wall 21 which serves both as the bottom and rear wall of the inner container. Wall 21, beginning at the upper rear margin 22 of the inner container, slopes downwardly and forwardly to the lower front margin of the inner container in t-he region 23. Flaked, crushed7 or cubed ice 24 is stored in the inner container. To collect water which has accumulated from ice which has melted, a transverse tube 2Sv extends across the inner container at its lower front marginal portion 23 and is connected to a discharge pipe 26 which extends through a wall of the outer container to a drain.

A generally rectangular plate 27 is secured to wall 21 This plate 27 is typically provided with a plurality of horizontal ribs 28 and 29, the ribs 28 extending from one marginal edge 31 thereof and the ribs 29 extending from the other marginal edge 32 thereof. These ribs are usually formed in the plate 27 and serve both as spacers and means for connecting the plate and wall together, and also as,

this space being opened only at the -lower marginal edge 34 of the liner, and at an inlet port 36 adjacent the upper margin of the liner. A water supply to this space is provided by the pipe 37 connected to the aperture from the oat ltank 38. Make-up water is supplied from a water pressure main 39 through the valve 41 operated by the oat arm and float 42 and 43, respectively. The

oat thereby establishes and maintains the desired level.

44 of the water in the ou-ter container 11, which is slightly below the overflow outlet and vent 13.

The Water 44 in the outer container is that which is.

used for making drinks and is Withdrawn from the container'through the pipe 46 having an inlet 47. A pressurizing pump 43 draws the water out of the tank and pumps it through the pipe 49 into a carbonator tank 51 to which carbon dioxide is supplied through the pipe.

52. The carbonated water is supplied under pressure in the line 53 connected to the dispensing faucet S4 operated by the handle 56.

When water is drawn from the cooler by -the water pump 48, water begins to flow from the float chamber 38 through the pipe 37 into the space between the Wallv 21 and liner plate 27. It then follows the serpentine path indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2 until it leaves at the lower marginal edge 34 upon entry into the reservoir of the cooler. A coil of refrigerant pipe 57 is provided in the reservoir and is connected to the refrigerating equipment 58. Refrigerant is circulated through this coil and, over a period of time, generates a donut of ice 60.

The present invention also facilitates the cooling of Syrups used in the preparation of cold drinks. For this purpose, in the illustrated embodiment, three sets of syrup cooling coils are shown. The uppermost set 61, is connected' to the pressurized syrup tank 62 from which syrup flows by way of line 63 ythrough the coil and out -through the line 64 to the syrup dispensing faucet 66 controlled by the handle 67. Similarly, the coils 68 may be used to circulate another syrup and the coils 69 may be used for the circulation and cooling of still another syrup. Therefore, in the illustrated embodiment, three flavors of syrup may also be cooled by the ice chest in addition to cooling the water required for the cold drinks.

In making cold drinks, it is desirable that the water dispensed from the faucet be at a temperature of approximately 34 Fahrenheit. The present invention is particularly well able to cool water so that even in a size occupying a rather limited volume, the device can produce a much greater quantity of cooled water than devices of similar size and using 'refrigerating systems of sirnilar capacity, known heretofore. There are several reasons for this.

One reason is the fact tha-t even the unribbed areas 27U of the upper surface of plate 27 are close to the lower face 21L of wall 21, a one-sixteenth inch distance therebetween being typical, for example. Therefore, all of the water entering the reservoir must follow the serpentine entrance path in intimate contact with the heat exchanging Wall 21 of the ice storage compartment. Also, because of the fact that a very large area of the wall 21 is in intimate contact with the ice stored in the inner container, the area for heat transfer is large.

Because the wall 21 is inclined, there is no bridging of ice over it. Therefore, good ice contact with the upper surface 21U of the wall is maintained. The wall 21 can be other than planar, so long as it provides a large heat transfer area, is easy to keep clean, and has a good slope adequate to prevent the ice from bridging. Consequently, the quantity of heat which can be transferred from the water entering the reservoir is quite substantial. Also,.during times other than rush hours, the refrigerating coils can build up the ice bank at the bottom of the container and the Water which enters the containers ythrough the slot at the bottom edge 34 of the plate 27 will usually impinge on this ice bank and circulate within the center of it as it enters the reservoir. Therefore, this invention makes possible the use of stainless steel for heat transmission in the most efcient possible manner. In fact, the device is so efcient that whereas with conventional cooling equipment a refrigerating system requiring approximately two horsepower might ordinarily be required, one using one-third horsepower is adequate when employed with the present invention.

Another advantage of the present invention is that fact that it is not necessary to store the chilled water or to chill it under pressure. This has obvious advantages insofar as sealing, container construction, and associated equipment, are concerned.

While the invention has been disclosed and described in some detail in the drawings and foregoing description, they are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, as other modiiicationsmay readily suggest themselves to persons skilled in this art and within the broad scope of the invention, reference being had to the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. An ice chest comprising:

ice; a liquid; an upwardly opening liquid container;

a sloping wall dividing said container and thereby providing rst and second compartments in said container, said compartments being isolated from each other only by said sloping Wall, said rst compartment holding said liquid, said sloping wall both vertically and horizontally supporting said ice in said second compartment;

.and a liner mounted against the underside of said' sloping wall and S29-operating therewith to provide 4 l a downwardly opening chamber closed at the top and contiguous with said sloping wall; valve-operated liquid dispensing means communicating with said rst compartment and dispensing liquid therefrom outside of said ice chest; -a source of makeup liquid for replacing dispensed liquid;

liquid adding means communicating with said source and with said chamber adjacent an upper margin thereof, said chamber establishing a generally downward ow of the liquid entering said chamber from said adding means and maintaining the added liquid in contact with said sloping wall until the added liquid leaves the bottom of said chamber and thereupon enters said rst compartment.

2. An ice chest comprising:

a rst upwardly opening liquid container;

a second upwardly opening liquid container disposed in said rst container and closing the upper end of said rst container, said second container having a sloping wall portion and providing rst and second compartments in said first container, said compartments being in side-by-side relation and isolated from each other by said second container with said sloping wall constituting a side wall common to both compartments, and said sloping wall also providing a roof for said rst compartment and a floor for said second compartment, said rst compartment holding a liquid, said sloping wall portion both vertically and horizontally supporting ice in said second compartment;

means introducing a liquid into said rst compartment and including guide means disposed proximate the said sloping wall portion and cooperating therewith to direct the liquid prior to introduction into said yfirst compartment and to maintain direct contact between substantially all of the area of said sloping Wall portion and the liquid prior to departure of the liquid from the said guide means into said first compartment.

3. A combination comprising: p

a container having i-irst and second compartments therein with an inclined wall separating said compartments;

a separator plate mounted on said inclined wall and disposed in said second compartment and having a plurality of ribs extending in parallel spaced relationship to each other and from lateral margins of said separator plate, each of said ribs being formed in said separator plate and alternate ones of said ribs extending from one of the lateral margins of said separator plate toward the other lateral margin of said plate with the next adjacent rib to each of said alternate ribs extending from said other lateral margin toward said one lateral margin, thereby establishing a serpentine path for a liquid to follow during ow through the space between said separator pla-te and said inclined Wall;

a float chamber and float operated valve means supplying water from a pressurized water supply line through a non-pressurized line to the said space between said separator plate and said inclined wall;

a drain pipe in said rst compartment adjacent the lower marginal edge of said inclined wall to drain water derived from melting ice in said rst compartment;

refrigerant conduit means disposed in said second compartment and connected to refrigerant circulating means;

water conduit means in said second compartment for removing water therefrom;

a Water pump connected to said water conduit means and coupled to a carbonating tank having carbonating gas supplied thereto;

a caronate water pipe outlet from said carbonating tan and a controllable dispensing faucet connected to said carbonated water pipe; l

syrup conduit means in said second compartment and connected to a pressurized syrup tank exterior to said reservoir, said syrup conduit means being also connected 'to a syrup discharge pipe;

Y and a controllable syrup dispensing faucet connected to said syrup discharge pipe.

4. A combination comprising:

a container having first and second compartments therein with an inclined wall member separating said compartments;

a guide member disposed in said second compartment proximate said inclined wall member, one of said members being formed to provide a serpentine space yfor conveyance of liquid during flow between said members;

means supplying water to the said serpentine space between said members;

refrigerant conduit means disposed in said second com- References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 11,237,050 8/1917 Kafer 62-338 X 1,321,731 v11/19\l9 Gill 62-337 X l1,466,388 8/ 1923 Willmott 621-396 1,702,560 2/ 1929 `lEbinger 62-399 X 2,840,996 7/ 1958 Steinhorst 62.--393 X ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner.

MEYER PERLIIN, Examiner. Y

20 R. E. BACKUS, N. R. WILSON, Assistant Examiners. 

1. AN ICE CHEST COMPRISING: ICE; A LIQUID; AN UPWARDLY OPENING LIQUID CONTAINER; A SLOPING WALL DIVIDING SAID CONTAINER AND THEREBY PROVIDING FIRST AND SECOND COMPARTMENTS IN SAID CONTAINER, SAID COMPARTMENTS BEING ISOLATED FROM EACH OTHER ONLY BY SAID SLOPING WALL, SAID FIRST COMPARTMENT HOLDING SAID LIQUID, SAID SLOPING WALL BOTH VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY SUPPORTING SAID ICE IN SAID SECOND COMPARTMENT; AND A LINER MOUNTED AGAINST THE UNDERSIDE OF SAID SLOPING WALL AND CO-OPERATING THEREWITH TO PROVIDE A DOWNWARDLY OPENING CHAMBER CLOSED AT THE TOP AND CONTIGUOUS WITH SAID SLOPING WALL; VALVE-OPERATED LIQUID DISPENSING MEANS COMMUNICATING WITH SAID FIRST COMPARTMENT AND DISPENSING LIQUID THEREFROM OUTSIDE OF SAID ICE CHEST; A SOURCE OF MAKEUP LIQUID FOR REPLACING DISPENSED LIQUID; LIQUID ADDING MEANS COMMUNICATING WITH SAID SOURCE AND WITH SAID CHAMBER ADJACENT AN UPPER MARGIN THEREOF, SAID CHAMBER ESTABLISHING A GENERALLY DOWNWARD FLOW OF THE LIQUID ENTERING SAID CHAMBER FROM SAID ADDING MEANS AND MAINTAINING THE ADDED LIQUID IN CONTACT WITH SAID SLOPING WALL UNTIL THE ADDED LIQUID LEAVES THE BOTTOM OF SAID CHAMBER AND THEREUPON ENTERS SAID FIRST COMPARTMENT. 